Where We Stand, as a Nation, Today. (optimism re polls and Bush’s status)

[Brotherjohn]

Where We Stand, as a Nation, Today.

Polls show Bush’s approval ratings to be at all-time lows, and his disapproval to be at all-time highs in most polls (considering margin of error). He has dropped back to pre-9-11 levels, and these numbers continue to drop precipitously. While some may say “Yeah, but his approval ratings are still over 50%”, this is merely the remnants of the faith placed in him after 9-11. More and more of that faith is lost every day. In fact, although Bush approval ratings have virtually always been in decline (but for a few weeks after 9-11 and Iraq), that decline is now steeper than ever.

The latest two polls, Pew and Newsweek, have Bush’s approval at 52% (48% negative) and 53% (36% negative). More importantly, his “re-elect”-to-“someone new” ratios are at 45%-48% and 44%-49%, respectively.

Here is where I believe we are now. The inevitability of truth has finally caught up with an administration which has been running from it since Day 1. Prior to 9-11, most Americans had not made up their mind about George W. Bush as president. They knew Election 2000 was a rancorous debacle, but they saw unflattering sides of both candidates during that episode. The honeymoon was still on, and they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for a while.

Bush’s immense boost in popularity immediately following 9-11 vaulted this “benefit of the doubt” into the stratosphere. The injured goliath that was the United States needed a strong leader, and Bush said all the right things in the immediate aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. He said we should track down and find whomever did this, and that any governments who backed them should pay a price. This sounded reasonable, if we indeed knew who was responsible and could catch them. He also said that we should pull together as a nation, and as a world, and that we should not jump to conclusions and lash out unreasonably. He said that, although the act was apparently the work of Islamic fundamentalists, we should not consider the Islamic world our enemy or stereotype Muslims at home and abroad.

All these things were what he said, and given that his approval ratings went through the roof before he could actually do anything, one has to conclude that his high approval ratings after 9-11 were due to his words, and not his actions.

His actions, however, have acted to chip away at the huge boost in good faith he received after 9-11. He has squandered this good faith in him just as he has squandered the good faith imparted to the entire country by the world. Worse, his actions and words since 9-11 have been so repeatedly and extensively contradicted by the facts that the public has now almost totally lost its trust in him.

Again, in the aftermath of 9-11, the American people listened to the words of George W. Bush and gave him the benefit of the doubt. They had little choice. He was the only leader they had. How many times did we hear phrases such as these?
“He’s our leader and we depend on him to get us through this.”
“We have no choice but to stand behind him.”
“He’s right! In times of war, we need to stand united.”
“He MUST know something we don’t.”

And that last one is the most telling. Bush insisted that he knew that Iraq was a threat to us. A threat so dire as to necessitate immediate invasion and conquering. He had hard evidence of Iraqi WMDs... tons of chemical and biological weapons, and even exact locations (according to Donald Rumsfeld). They had proof that Iraq was close to developing a nuclear weapon (with Bush saying “I don’t know what more evidence we need!” on that subject). They knew Iraq was in cahoots with Al Qaeda, and said that we could not wait for the smoking gun of a “mushroom cloud”. They pushed the idea that Iraq was behind 9-11, to the point that a majority of Americans ended up believing that baseless accusation. We were told we had to initiate an unprecedented pre-emptive war now or face the consequences.

But it is George W. Bush and his administration who are now facing the consequences. When you repeatedly spit in the face of truth, it inevitably strikes back. You cannot avoid facts, and facts have shown, time and time again, that almost everything presented by the Bush administration to convince us that we needed to initiate this war was either misleading or outright willful deception.

This has not been lost on the American people. As much as we may have behaved as sheep, following our shepherd en masse after 9-11, we were really only doing so conditionally… the condition being he has to be right.

“He MUST know something we don’t.”

We, as a vulnerable nation still reeling from 9-11, gambled on this precept and lost. As it turns out, he did NOT know something we didn’t. Most of what he claimed to “know” was actually either wishful thinking or outright lies, promoted by those who wanted war with Iraq. Unfortunately, as a nation, we are also now facing the consequences: the ongoing quagmire that is Iraq, an ever-growing casualty list of American soldiers, the destruction of our reputation abroad and the compounded effects of this consequence on the war on terror and the hope for peace and democracy in Iraq and the Mid-East.

Iraq has also caused us to re-visit Bush’s domestic policies and whether we have been deceived on that front as well. In light of deficits as far as the eye can see and the jobless “recovery”, we are now re-assessing the trust we have placed in Bush to handle our economic woes (and asking if, perhaps, his policies have caused them). We are re-assessing the validity of tax cuts as the perfect response to every economic situation. We are re-assessing the unprecedented secrecy of this administration, and whether their words jibe with what we are able to find out despite this secrecy. We are re-assessing George W. Bush on every front, and we do not like what we see.

Nothing can change the inevitable conclusion we have reached. Not a Bush-friendly media. Not an “October Surprise”. Not even 200 million dollars. The conclusion we have reached is that we, the people, no longer find George W. Bush trustworthy.

[caledesi]

1. Excellent, well thought-out post BJ!

* is going down.